In hospital examining rooms and the like, many times patients are required to move their footwear and hose. This results in the bare foot contacting the floor and other surfaces. Preferably some types of throw away or washable slippers are used to prevent transmission of infectious agents from contacting the surfaces. However, as a practical matter, even though current throw away slippers are relatively expensive and there is a tendency to use them, more often than not they are not purchased and therefore no protection is available.
Recently, public awareness of infectious diseases has increased such that those associated with the medical field are increasingly using prophylactic devices to protect themselves. In retail stores, certain items cannot be returned once worn by the purchaser. Also, stores selling footwear are becoming more concerned with the problem of transferring infection when several people try on the same footwear.
The present invention is directed to a method for the manufacture of a disposable insert used for footwear which is very inexpensive. The insert may be used for any form of footwear.
The insert is formed from a flexible film material which is slipper-like in configuration. Preferably, the insert is formed from a film which has therein thermal forming properties at room temperature whereby the insert will conform to the shape of the foot. Further, the insert is thin enough not to interfere with the normal foot-footwear size relationship.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, one side of the film has the property of frictionally engaging the skin of the foot and the other side of the film has the property of non-adhesion or sliding engagement with the surface of footwear. These properties in combination, the thermoplasticity, thickness and surface characteristics are all selected to ensure ease of insertion of the insert into the footwear and removal of the same.
The invention is made at least in part by the inventive disclosure of my co-pending application entitled Sealing Element for Angle Seals and T-shirt Bags, Ser. No. 184,077 filed Apr. 15, 1988 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety in this application.
Broadly my invention comprises a block-sealed hanger having inserts depending therefrom on either side thereof. The inserts are joined to the header of the hanger by perforated release lines and include seal lines which form the toe and rear portions of the insert. The sides of the hanger, whether side gussetted or seamed, form the bottom or sole of the insert.